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<title>The Present is In-Progress and the Future is Subject to Change, So What's Another Path on the Road at This Point? by knightofsuperior</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27199943">The Present is In-Progress and the Future is Subject to Change, So What's Another Path on the Road at This Point?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightofsuperior/pseuds/knightofsuperior'>knightofsuperior</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragalia Lost (Video Game), Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:28:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27199943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightofsuperior/pseuds/knightofsuperior</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An unexpected guest arrives at the Halidom, and things spiral from there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Present is In-Progress and the Future is Subject to Change, So What's Another Path on the Road at This Point?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m afraid we have a bit of a situation.”</p><p> </p><p>Cleo closed her eyes. “Is it another rift?”</p><p> </p><p>Elisanne blinked. “Why, yes, actually. One just opened up a few villages away. Nothing’s come out of it yet, but we have Ranzal and Luca keeping an eye on-wait.” She raised an eyebrow. “Did you say <em> another </em> rift?”</p><p> </p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p> </p><p>“Where is it?”</p><p> </p><p>Cleo sighed, placing her face in her right hand. “In Heinwald’s room. He told me to come here and bring as many people as possible.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, no!” Elisanne reached for her spear, rushing past her. “We must away before whatever’s in that damnable portal lays him low-”</p><p> </p><p>The Paladyn let out a yelp as Cleo caught her collar, causing her to flail about like a fish freshly hooked from a pond. “That’s...not why he asked that.”</p><p> </p><p>“What’re you-”</p><hr/><p>“-talking about? We were perfectly fine before you barged in here like some common criminal!” Heinwald scoffed as Cleo’s eyes looked ready to burn holes in Heinwald’s own. Curran wasn’t much better, though he had the foresight to hide his glaring behind a novel he had in his hands whenever Heinwald glanced his way. “Really, this is why I asked you to knock upon your return-you interrupted our guest.”</p><p> </p><p>“Guest?!” Elisanne gawked in abject horror, her spear at the ready. “Heinwald, I know you’re an odd one, but this is beyond the pale! That’s a fiend!”</p><p> </p><p>“Now, now.” The shadowy figure, sitting comfortably in Heinwald’s spare chair as if it were his own, took a sip of tea. It was an unsettling sight, given the tendril-like hand the cup was held by and the way the drink simply vanished into whatever passed for the creature’s maw. “I take <b>some </b> offense to that. I much prefer to see myself as...a dashing rogue, of sorts.” As he spoke, he gestured to a few parts of his body-a fiery coat of red and black. Its unusual, bladed footwear. A string-tied waistcoat. Some sort of...cravat, perhaps? And, the most obvious adornments, a pair of striking black wings and a tall, <em> tall </em>top hat of a similar hue. “Or, at least, that’s what my creator perceives me as.”</p><p> </p><p>“Someone made you.” Elisanne’s voice was filled with utter disbelief, her spear shaking in her hands. “Someone was powerful enough to make you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, not exactly. I use ‘creator’ for lack of a better term.” Resting his head in his spare hand, the figure took on a tone not dissimilar to Heinwald’s own. “If I’m being precise, I always existed, but it took my current...<b>benefactor</b>, shall we say, to coalesce me into this form.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, about that-” Heinwald picked up a plate of scones, holding it out towards the not-fiend. He sat up and quickly snatched up a scone, letting it too fall into the crimson abyss. "Is it possible for us to meet said benefactor? I’d love to ask him a few questions."</p><p> </p><p>“That makes two of us,” Curran grumbled, flipping to the next page of his book. “Such as ‘What,’ and ‘Why,’ and ‘How in Illia’s name.’”</p><p> </p><p>The figure chuckled. "I’m sure he’d be glad to oblige...if you can pull him between three planes of existence."</p><p> </p><p>Cleo's brow furrowed. "Three?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yes." The creature raised a finger. "Your world." Another. "His world." A third. "And the collective unconscious between the two."</p><p> </p><p>Elisanne blinked. “I don’t follow.”</p><p> </p><p>Another chuckle. “To be fair, even <b>he </b> doesn’t all the time, so that’s perfectly fair, <em> mademoiselle. </em> Ah, but I’ve been such a rude guest-I haven’t properly introduced myself. Terribly sorry.” Standing up to his full, towering height (almost reaching the room’s ceiling), the monster placed his cup down onto a nearby nightstand. He turned towards Cleo and Elisanne, taking a deep bow. “My name is Arsene. It’s truly a pleasure to meet you.”</p><p> </p><p>Cleo glanced at Elisanne, briefly locking her concerned gaze onto the Paladyn’s own, before turning her attention to Arsene. “You’ll forgive us for not feeling quite the same.”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course,” Arsene replied, without a shred of malice to his words, his rictus grin somehow growing <em> wider </em>. “After all, I am a rather unsettling thing, aren’t I?”</p>
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